WFYI adds art show to television lineup

Indianapolis public broadcaster WFYI will air its first televised “The Art of the Matter” show on Tuesday.

Co-hosts Sharon Gamble and Travis DiNicola intend to keep their Thursday evening radio show on WFYI-FM 90.1 intact. The broadcaster wants to use the 7:30 p.m. Tuesday spot on sister station WFYI-TV Channel 20 to provide a more in-depth look at visual arts.

“In some ways, it’s more of an extension of what we do on the radio. In other ways, it’s quite different,” DiNicola said, noting that the TV program gives more leeway for featuring art forms such as dance.

The radio program averages 4,500 listeners per quarter-hour during the original broadcast on Thursdays at 8 p.m., WFYI said, and more than 4,000 during a Saturday morning rerun.

"We're proud of the loyal following this series has garnered through the years, and [we] are excited over the prospect of growing that audience with a new weekly television series and enhanced online content," wrote Lori Plummer, the stations' director of media relations, in an e-mail.

Jim Simmons, who is producing the televised version of “The Art of the Matter,” said the 30-minute program will always feature at least one story on a local artist. The show also will run national stories provided through an exchange service among other PBS affiliates.

“This is definitely not ‘Mike & Mike in the Morning,’ where two guys are sitting there with all these bobbleheads in the background and it's radio on TV,” Simmons said. “This is not just two people talking.”

WFYI has used part of a Lilly Endowment grant, the amount of which has not been announced, to leverage other contributions to financially support the show in its first season, said Kristina Uland, the not-for-profit broadcaster’s vice president of development.

The organization will produce 20 episodes for the pilot season, Simmons said.